Fan Connection When Did You Become a Pats Fan?

[PatsFanSince74]

Well, I guess my screen name gives me away. I moved to Boston for school in September 1974. A classmate scored tickets to the Home Opener against the Dolphins, the reigning SuperBowl Champion Dolphins. The Pats won 34--24. I've been hooked ever since.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I had a pretty interesting path to Pats fandom... I checked "in the 1970s," because that's when I was really conscious of who was who in football (born in 1962.) But I never rooted for another football team in my life. Now here's the twist...

I've been in VA since I was 6. I do have early memories of saying "I'm Gino Capaletti," (as well as Carl Yastremski,) but in the 60s my understanding of sports was baseball-oriented (being a Boston area kid.)

Well, when we moved South, my brother immediately tried to fit in, and picked up a rooting interest in the Redskins, Senators (HAH!), Bullets (later the Wizards,) and, in the 70s, the Capitals.

Me? YOu guessed it: Red Sox, Pats, Bruins, Celtics. I never really followed the Bruins or Celtics, and the Red Sox? Well, baseball is a "past time". Football is Life.

Final twist: My brother moved back to the Boston area, and is the only Redskins fan in his town. He's also stopped taunting me on how at least his team has won the big one. (He was convinced there was a secret Redskins dynasty because they hopskotched into three super bowls in the 80s, as I recall.)

I only regret that in our early years of sibling rivalry, the Pats couldn't have had their 2001-2004 run... and of course, the 2007 and 2008 trophies we're about to take.

PFnV

 

[Boston Jay]

'95.. still young.

I picked up a book about football and I was hooked.

 

[reflexblue]

1974,The pats started off 4-0 .Until than I didn't know they existed, I was 20. Before that I watched the Giants.

 

[chunkypony]

Back when Bledsoe was drafted. That was my first great sports memory (I was 6), and probably the reason I love the draft still to this day.

 

[primetime]

I'm not very old, but I started going as a toddler with my father (who had season tickets since 1960) in the late 1980s, so I never really had a chance to be a fan of another team. I'm glad I can say that, though, the amount of bandwagoner fans in my age group in the Boston area is incredible.

 

[Michigan Dave]

1992. I was 12, and way more into college football. I started paying a lot more attention to the NFL, and hated the Lions. They played in a dome. I have roots in Boston, the Pats played outside in the cold, which was cool, and I was given Pats stuff as a kid.

 

[fair catch fryar]

1979. I was 9 years old playing in an annual youth hockey tourney and the entire Patriots cheerleader squad came to the opening ceremony. Being nine I thought they were really hot. When I look at pictures today, I shake my head when I compare them to the ones today. Anyways, the next day my grandfather went out and me bought me the "Pat" the Patriot hat with a pom pom the size of a softball on top of it and I haven't looked back since.

 

[Crowpointer]

1992. I was 12, and way more into college football. I started paying a lot more attention to the NFL, and hated the Lions. They played in a dome. I have roots in Boston, the Pats played outside in the cold, which was cool, and I was given Pats stuff as a kid.

Dave what games are you going to this year ?

 

[PatsFanSince74]

1974,The pats started off 4-0 .Until than I didn't know they existed, I was 20. Before that I watched the Giants.

Yeah, and they ended the season 7-7.

 

[Ghost of Ben Dreith]

My father was a die hard Giant fan way back in 1960. He hung with the Giants for a bit as his favorite, but I fell in love with the Pats at 6 years old and haven't looked back.

As much as I followed all Boston sports back then, the only one I really stuck with as I moved around the country was the Pats. It was hard to let go of the Celtics though. I still follow them a bit, but the Pats are the only team that has an impact on my days when they lose.

 

[Michigan Dave]

Dave what games are you going to this year ?

Good question. I will most likely have classes on Sunday this fall (law school beckons me...), but I'm looking at the Cincinnati MNF game- my best friend and college roommate lives in Cinci now, so this is a done deal. I'd like to make it back to Indy on 11-4 for the Colts game, and then I'm shooting for either the Jets or Dolphins in December with a trip to Boston. The rest I'll have to settle for Sunday Ticket (and possibly TiVo with no phone, and not opening the internet during class). I'm playing it by ear, though, since the fall school calendar isn't out. My disposable income is also vastly reducing for the time being.

 

[JoeSixPat]

I wasn't a big football fan growing up but in the mid 80s following a surgery involving a blood transfusion all of a sudden I became a BIG fan. Not sure why.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I wasn't a big football fan growing up but in the mid 80s following a surgery involving a blood transfusion all of a sudden I became a BIG fan. Not sure why.

God did it.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

I wasn't a big football fan growing up but in the mid 80s following a surgery involving a blood transfusion all of a sudden I became a BIG fan. Not sure why.

Amazing you didn't become a Buffy fan

 

[Canada's #1 Pats Fan]

January 1986. Watching the Pats kick Miami all over the field in the playoffs - that's all it took for me to get hooked. We'll forget about what happened in the Superbowl that year.

 

[Jimke]

I started to follow the Pats as soon as Billy Sullivan was awarded

the franchise. One of his first hires was Mike Holovak. It was fun

reading in the paper who Mike had signed the day before. Most

of the players were former CFL players and NFL rejects. All the good

college players shied away from the new league. They even preferred the

CFL over the AFL. The first year the Pats looked at about 170 players.

If a player committed a gross mistake in a game, he was apt to be gone

the following Monday. I have been obsessed by the team ever since then.

 

[italian pat patriot]

when the NFL 'arrived' in Italy: beginning eighties

the first Super Bowl showed here was PHI-OAK

i choose the Patriots for the name, the logo and the uniforms

love and passion started from that moment

probably i was the only one that choose NE instead the Raiders, the 49ers, the Redskins, the Steelers, and so on

 

[RIP#40]

!966- 10 years old. Favorite player was Jim Colclough because he came to my 5th grade class at the Beethoven School in West Roxbury.

 

[The Boston Patriot]

From the very beginning in 1960. How could I not? A Massachusetts boy who loved football finally had a team of his own to root for - - - "The Boston Patriots"!

I'm glad they eventually ended up in Foxboro and have become the "New England Patriots" basically because "Boston" didn't really deserve them. "Boston" didn't even try to fight seriously for them with all the Boston council and State political in-fighting and pissing contests involved, so now the whole New England region gets to support them and its even better that way. They really ARE "The New England Patriots" and represent the whole region's passionate football fans.

They basically sucked or flailed in mediocrity for long spans of time but after a 42 year wait they finally reached the promised land in 2001 and then went and reached football nirvana 2 more times for 3 superbowls in 4 years!!! Solid potential to add more hardware in the next 4 or 5 years. It's been well worth the wait and all the years rooting for them, pitiful as some of those years were. Life is good! :singing:

Amen! I can't tell you how much money I lost in '63 on the AFL Championship
game. I was in the military and needless to say, I ate at the mess hall for the
next few months exclusively as there were no discretionary funds to draw on
for that occasional respite from that gawd awful chow hall.